Friday, September 11, 2009

Imagine...Going to work and sitting at your desk, upset the boss just passed you up for a promotion. You're gonna have to stay late today and miss your daughter's dance recital. Suddenly, you are thrown five city blocks in the air. You never knew what hit you.

Imagine...Sitting in your office and you are in complete disbelief. You cannot leave your building. The skyscraper you are in is on fire. The building is shaking. Word you are getting is that the stairs and elevators are all blocked with fired and debris. The heat is building. There is no escape. There will be no rescue. Do you wait to die? Or do you jump. You see others pass your window. You ask God's forgiveness as you take control of the one thing left in your power.

Imagine...Storming to your cubicle. You had just had a major fight with your husband. You both said some mean, hurtful things. You sit in your ergonomic chair and silently, deep in your mind and soul, you take minor comfort knowing that you guys will be able to kiss and make up at 5:30 tonight at dinner. A flash of light and glass, your life is over.

Imagine...Running the halls of the Pentagon to an important meeting. Something is developing in New York City that is going to have a drastic impact on National Security. You stumble on the loose corner of a rug, you curse the rug, look up as the wall to your right crushes your body. The last thing you smell is burning wood and scorched concrete.

Imagine...Waking up, trying to regain your bearings. A second ago, you were at the watercooler talking about the new college football season. You think Florida State is going to make a run at it, but your buddy said his money was on USC. Now, the room is dark. Your buddy isn't anywhere in sight. You realize people are beating you with coats and pillows. You then realize the pain coming from your back and arms. You are covered in flaming jet fuel. You scream in pain before you fall into shock, then die.

Imagine...Responding to the mass confusion of two planes flying into the World Trade Center. There are no elevators. No word on the conditions of the stairwells. All you want to do is get to the fires and help the people. You grab your 80 pounds of gear and climb the 80 flights of stairs...1 grueling flight per minute. You hear another series of explosions. Has another plane hit?! You never hear the answer as the floor above you lands on your skull.

Imagine...Trying to organize batallions and companies of firefighters from the ground. These men are your responsibility. You send them up the towering inferno. The first tower collapses, you dive into a stairwell. When the dust starts to clear, a man who is a friend and the chaplain to the entire fire department lies next to you, dead.

Imagine...Sitting on a flight to the west coast. Suddenly, men have taken over the plane. They have killed one person with a boxcutter. They have taken the cockpit and are now flying the plane to a new destination, or, more appropriately, target. You and others get in contact with people on the ground. This plane, appearantly, is the fourth in a targeted attack on America and innocent civilians. You don't know of the horrors of people burning alive in the Twin Towers...You only know what the inevitable has now become, and what you must do about it. You follow the lead of four men, one of whom yells, "Let's Roll." A short fight occurs in the cockpit. The plane loses control, turns over, and crashes into the ground. You knew going into the cockpit, these murderous scum had already determined that you and everyone else was going to die. So, you and the others aboard determined the how and when and took back some control.

Imagine...That you had been in the Twin Towers or the Pentagon or Flight 93. That your life was taken by murderous, evil scum of the Earth that took part in killing 3000+ innocent civilians. Imagine that you were taken in an instant, without chance to say sorry for your wrongs, to make up for the mistakes you made with loved ones, or to just meet your life's potential. Imagine, even worse, you suffered and died in the fires and smoke in the aftermath of the plane crashes. You felt your flesh melt under the heat of the jet fuel. Imagine the pain and shock of knowing you were going to die and there was nothing you could do. Imagine the horrors of 9/11/01, and you were destined to become one of the many faces on the memorial walls dedicated to the victims of the attacks.

Imagine...

Now, Imagine...A large, loud-mouth portion of the country takes your death and uses it for political gain. They accuse the President of knowing and covering up the fact that the US Government knew, and quite possibly took part in, the acts that killed you.

Imagine...An entire political party wants to give the same people that helped planned the attacks access to US Courts and the US Constitution. From the new President through both houses of Congress, there are those that want to offer full rights and privileges to the same group of people who trained to kill you. That the new President wants to move the terrorist scum from an off-shore military base to on-shore, US federal prisons, with full access to legal representation, full Miranda Rights, and full Constitutional protection.

Imagine...The new President and his party attacking and distracting the efforts of intelligence agencies on a daily basis. That party uses the newspapers to discredit and attack these intelligence agencies for scaring or causing discomfort to people that have information that could be used to save more people from your fate.

Imagine...A President and his party requiring US Soldiers to hesitate everytime they arrest or even engage with an enemy. Instead of trying to protect themselves from dying on the battlefield, they have to worry about what a Democratic senator will say about them if they kill an enemy. They have to worry about some politician calling for a full trial if you kill someone who poses a threat. They have to offer Miranda Rights to terrorists they capture on the battlefield.

Imagine...The new President refusing to call the groups that are responsible for your death "terrorists." And he doesn't call it a "war on terror," but some sort of contingency plan. The new President apologizes to unfriendly nations for how America defended itself.

Imagine...Eight years after your death, your death is memorialized by the new President as a call to community service. Instead of calling for a restrengthening of our pursuit of Bin Laden and al Qeada and preventing more terrorist attacks on US soil, the President says America should go out and pick up litter on the highway or other such community service. He in effect dismisses your sacrifice and your murder by saying 9-11 is a day of service.

Imagine...You are looking down on the current administration and the party in power. Are you feeling forgotten? Are you feeling disgraced? Do you think you and the 3000 other men, women, and children who died on 9-11-01 are being memorialized appropriately and with respect?

There is still a gaping hole in Manhattan, and in so many hearts and souls in America.

We are still healing.

In our healing, we have become divided. We have let the power-hungry manipulate us into buying their snake oils and their magic youth formulas. We have let the government group us into small categories and let the opposing side rip us to shreds for our beliefs.

We are a divided nation. The more divided we become, the more hatred and vitriol we share for our own people, the more the murderous bastards have won. They are winning the psychological battle against America because we let politics and personal agendas take over. We let them win because we refused to tell the people we elected to, "Shut the hell up!," and kick them out of office. We let our own government divide us.

On September 11, 2001, we stood in horror...in anger...in shock. On September 12, 2001, we got down on our knees as a nation and asked God for the strength and wisdom to deliver justice. That same day, we, as a nation, got off our knees, dusted ourselves off, and got to work. We united as a country to do everything we could to prevent this attack from repeating itself. We were the UNITED States of America, a nation determined to right the wrongs of the immoral attacks inflicted on innocent civilians.

For six weeks, Old Glory flew high on every home, on every street, in every city, town, or suburb in America. We weren't straight or gay, black or white, rich or poor, left or right...We were AMERICANS. For six weeks we were the greatest nation on Earth, full of angry, hurt, and fortified Americans. For those six weeks, the terrorists had lost the psychological battle though they had won the physical battle at that point.

Here we are, eight years later. Gaping holes still within the hearts of so many people who lost so much in 100 minutes on a gorgeous September Tuesday morning. The hole in Manhattan is still open, like a nagging injury that still hasn't healed. And there is a gaping hole in the hearts, minds, and souls of Americans.

For six weeks, we were unified, together, and we were brothers with one creed and one loyalty. What happened? Why did we stop caring about the nation and the future? Why did we decide that our needs here and now were most important?

Now, we are 600 million strangers with our own agendas. We let the mouthpieces in Washington divide us on a daily basis. It is a sad way to pay tribute to the people on Flight 93, the men and women in the Twin Towers and The Pentagon, and the brave firefighters and police officers who perished on that terrible morning. We have disgraced them. Their sacrifice has gone in vain...

But it doesn't have to be that way.

If you will take a pledge to read the US Constitution, then read the Declaration of Independence, then read Thomas Paine's Common Sense, and then look with pride at the red, white, and blue American flag, and then look at the people on your left and your right, and look at them as your brothers and sisters in the struggle of being American...if you will do all those things, then remember how you felt on 9/11/01 at around 11am, then we will be better off. If we will remember what it is that makes America great, and remember that despite her faults, America IS a great nation, we can turn it around.

America IS a great nation. If you don't believe that, France is wide open. Buy a one-way ticket. Enjoy the riots. It is time we started remembering that we are in a great nation. We are free people. We need to appreciate the freedoms we have, and, more importantly, remember and thank the people who protect those freedoms and rights. It is time to cut out the petty garbage and grow the hell up. It is time to appreciate what we have.

Today, on 9-11-09, it is time to remember. Remember everything. Remember Todd Beamer. Remember the firemen who ran up the stairwells of the Twin Towers, but never came out. Remember the empty chairs that so many families will witness at dinner tonight. Remember what America stands for and forget the garbage and politics. There is one thing we can do to honor the men and women who suffered and died on 9-11. We must re-unite and become a strong nation. Stop pointing fingers and stop blaming Bush or Obama or whomever. Do your part.

Honor and remember the freedom fighters who died eight years ago today. Let's unite as Americans PERMANENTLY.

About Me...And This Blog Site...

My name is David A. Ebert, the oldest of two siblings produced by my parents, Leah and David G. Ebert. We are all Republicans, but I take it a toke or two...well, closer to 10 tokes...further than my parents,

I am very much a Right Wing Conservative. I am a Reagan Conservative. I believe Americans, in general, are smarter than elected officials in Washington, DC. We should be more in charge than the Government.

We, as individuals and families, should have more responsibility over our own, hard-earned money and not send more and more and more taxes to the out-of-touch politicians. I believe the government is there to serve us, and not us to serve them.

I believe in America's greatness and that, overall, we are the most generous, forgiving, intelligent, and genuinely decent country in the world. I also believe that we are the most powerful nation in the history of the world, but do not use that power to hold over the collective heads of other nations.

I believe that low taxes, intelligent spending of those tax revenues, strong initiatives on defense and education, and small government influence on the day-to-day lives of Americans are some of the most important ideals related to how the US should be operated.I believe in the freedoms granted by the US Constitution. I believe that judges should uphold and interpret the laws as written in the US Constitution, and not refer to any foreign legislation to make their historic decisions.

I believe the First Amendment, as well as the entire Bill of Rights, are the most important laws this world has ever seen.

I believe abortion is WRONG. I believe that homosexuality is WRONG. I believe that allowing anyone to publicly debate the possibility of lowering the age of consent, especially for young boys to consent to older men, is a tragedy of morality. I believe that organizations like NAMBLA should be publicly shunned and not given a platform to spew their harmful and dangerous rhetoric.

I believe there is a sad lacking in the ability of our nation to appreciate and accept self responsibility. We, as a nation, blame daddy, racism, sexism, classism, mommy, the mean teacher, the mean little league coach, the loud mouthed uncle, the financial status of the neighborhood in which we grew up in, and a million and one other reasons why we do not succeed. How often do we, as a nation, take the blame for our own mistakes? How often do you hear someone accept responsibility for their own mistakes? How often?

I am conservative. I am worried about the future of the country and the planet, especially if O-BOMB-A or Billary Clinton make it to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. I will start posting my fears, my hopes, my ideas as they all relate to news and politics. I hope to open some eyes and change some opinions with my writings. Most of all, I hope you will read my words and be inspired to find the truth...and not rely on Chris Matthews or Keith Olberman or Katie Couric or Matt Lauer for your opinions. I hope you will break the mold and do something unreal...unexpected...do something that O-BOMB-A and Billary are afraid of you doing...

Briefly About Me...

-2004 Graduate of Bluefield (VA) College
-1999 Graduate of Pocahontas High School
-Currently work as a House Parent in a children's group home
-Part-time professional wrestler
-Born in Chicago, huge Cubs, Bulls, and Bears supporter
-Huge Virginia Tech fan